Source: A post on the official Xbox forums which was republished on the Gaming Age forums.

The official story: "Microsoft does not comment on rumors or speculation"--Microsoft spokesperson.

What we heard: With Halo 2 only 87 days away, gamers are ravenously devouring every scrap of information Bungie makes made public. However, they are even more interested in what Bungie is keeping secret. So when the alleged beta-test leak appeared on the Xbox forums, Master Chief wannabes went to condition red. It described three new multiplayer maps: "Zanzibar," the factory shown off at E3; "Mid-ship" which takes place inside a Covenant Battle cruiser; and "Ivory Tower," a greenhouse filled with elevators. It also outlined the new weapons in the game, including: the new SMG ("this little baby packs a punch"); the Battle Rifle, which can be used to snipe from afar or up-close as an assault rifle; the Covenant beam rifle ("equivalent to the human Sniper Rifle"); the Brute Shot ("shoots grenades that bounce around"); the hard-to-find Covenant Carbine ("the best gun in the game"); and the Energy Sword ("don't mess with the best 'cause the best don't mess"). The leak also killed some rumors ("You CANNOT duel wield plasma swords…There IS NO DIFFERENCE aside from appearance between Spartans and elites in MP.") But veteran Halo fans will be most excited by the following tidbit: "Halo 2 will support four people on one Xbox for LIVE play. All at the same time." But is the leak accurate? Given the fact Microsoft pulled the original from the Xbox.com forums, the answer is almost certainly "yes."

Sounds cool, and the demo showing off the plasma sword makes me scared to face someone wielding one of those in MP. Though in a contest, I'm sure a rocket launcher would bitch-slap a sword any day of the week.

But one thing the poster didn't address that I'm dying to know: Do you have to go through repetitive levels and go back through half the game just to get out to the end again?

Dear Lord I want this game. Good thing I've got tons of tradeables at the ready so I won't be paying full price.

But wasn't the deformation of the vehicles a big selling point? I seem to recall in one of the videos a dev shooting out the tires of a Warthog, yet the post seemed to disregard this. Might that be a feature they disabled in multiplayer to get better frame rates? Thoughts?

I don't remember the tires being shot out (from the e3 presentation). I remember the hubcaps being shot off though. I don't see where he says that there's no vehicle damage, just no shooting out tires.

Edit - yeah just watched the video again and the warthog takes tons of damage - he shoots the rocket launcher at it over and over, but the tires don't go out. Probably would present a lot of problems to the driving/physics model.

There was another video more recently where a guy was playing it and doing the VO (while beating down another dev at the same time - most funny). He walks over to the Warthog then shoots off the hubcaps, then I could swear he blows out the tires as well because they try driving it and it lists big-time complete with sparks flying. Now, that may just be me blowing smoke up my own ass, but that's what my memory says.

There was another video more recently where a guy was playing it and doing the VO (while beating down another dev at the same time - most funny). He walks over to the Warthog then shoots off the hubcaps, then I could swear he blows out the tires as well because they try driving it and it lists big-time complete with sparks flying. Now, that may just be me blowing smoke up my own ass, but that's what my memory says.

On the e3 video he says that damage affects how well the vehicles drive, and there are definitely sparks coming out of the front panels. Maybe that's what you're thinking of.